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Realistic itinerary??

Hello,
my boyfriend and I are planning a 17 day, 16 night trip to Europe. We're thinking of landing in Paris for 3 days, then heading to the Amalfi coast region (3 days) (by overnight train perhaps?) then going up to Rome (4 days) then Florence (3 days) then Venice (2 days) and heading back to Paris to catch our flight back home.

I realize it's a lot of transit, and I'm looking for the least expensive way of getting around from city to city.
From the online fares, the train from paris to naples seems really expensive, so maybe a flight would be cheaper?

Not sure, anyway, any feedback or any helpful websites would be very appreciated
Thanks!

Hi Flora_Golyardi, Sounds like a fun, if busy, trip. It would be a better use of your time to fly home from one of the Italian cities rather than back-tracking to Paris. You can book an open-jaw flight(flying into one city, and home from another). Are you coming from North America? If so, be aware that flights out of Venice to North America leave very early in the morning.

What about flying to Venice from Paris, then train to Florence, train or fly (to save time) from there to Naples and on to the Amalfi coast, ending the trip with your few days in Rome and fly home from there?

Keep in mind that every time you change cities you lose some time with travelling, getting to your hotel etc. A two day stay for example, really only gives you one day for seeing anything.

This seems like a trip to Italy, with Paris thrown in for a few days. 17 days should be a great amount of time for a vacation and would be fine if you limited yourself to Italy - four destinations in one country.

Is it imperative that you add Paris to the trip? Can you do that separately later? I would really consider doing that.

If not, I'd put Paris at either the beginning or the end, not both, and fly to it from your last Italian destination (or from it, to your first).

Agree with RCG! Two nights in one place is only one day. You won't see very much in only one day.

If you have 17 full nights in Italy, you could consider the below, which are nights not days:

4 Venice
4 Florence
5 Rome
3 Amalfi Coast

And since it's probably not as easy to fly home from the AC, consider splitting Rome slightly such that you leave Rome after four nights, go to the AC, then get back to Rome, spend one final night, and then fly home the next day.

Adding Paris for three nights pretty much means lopping a day off everything, plus travel time. I'd probably consider taking off the AC then, instead.

Bobthe navigator has given you great advice, if you must include Paris.

However, I would agree with flygirl to just stay in Italy, see more and save money, but would not split time in Rome and I would allow more time on the AC, depending on what you enjoy. When figuring your time in cities in Italy, you really need to allow travel time. Two days in Venice may not be two days when you count time getting there and time departing.

Figuring travel time, and arrival morning used up getting in and settled, I would fly into

Venice (2&1/2days - 3 nts)
1/2 day travel, Venice to Florence

Florence + 1 or 2 day trips (3&1/2 days - 4 nts)
3/4 of daytravel from Florence directly to the AC
Amalfi Coast (3 days - 4 nts)
1/2 day travel, AC to Rome
End in Rome (4&1/2 days - 5 nts)